Monthly Archives: February 2013

Inside Tommy Bahama at 551 Fifth Avenue and catering to a mix of tourists and office workers, Marlin Bar has an upscale, pleasant feel to it. The main bar area (past the spiral staircase leading upstairs to a restaurant) greets patrons and there’s a small lounge area in the back. Happy hour specials offered from 4 to 6pm. Small number of tap beers available (including our Brooklyn favorite, Kelso!)

Recently, we had a chance to visit Pennsylvania 6 (at 132 West 31st Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea), Dead Rabbit (at 30 Water Street in Manhattan’s Financial District) and LCL Bar (at 212 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan). All three were good spots; all three had good craft beer selections. We liked Dead Rabbit the best of the three. Pennsylvania 6 and LCL were places to drop by if you’re nearby those neighborhoods, but not places to go way out of your way for.

For a piece of very welcomed news, we learned recently that The Paris Cafe will re-0pen sometime later in 2013. The Paris Cafe is our favorite spot in the South Street Seaport section of Manhattan and was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy. The major renovations include moving the bar, which has taken some time. We are just so happy to know that the Paris will re-open!

Another upscale sports bar for Union Square and the Village. This place used to be The Forum, so from that standpoint, The Royal is an upgrade for the 127 Fourth Avenue address. Still, regular readers know how we feel about the proliferation of upscale sports bars. The Royal offers dozens of TV panels for sports viewing. A large bar area greets patrons with a sizeable seating area in the back of the space. Sixteen beer taps, but most are repeated, so about ten different beers available. Mostly standard stuff, as is the food menu.

We’ve written on this topic before. We doubt that any actual legislation will be passed that bans pub crawls. Such a law would be too difficult to enforce. Either way, our questions are these: Why are the calls for bans on NYC bar crawls growing louder of late? Is it because there are more families living in Manhattan versus a generation or two ago? There have been pub crawls in Manhattan for decades, if not centuries. Why is it becoming a quality of life issue only now?

Located at 270 Court Street in Carroll Gardens, Strong Place is a solid stop on the Carroll Gardens craft-beer NYC bar crawl. This spot offers 24 quality tap beers, a friendly staff and some very good brunch food. A long bar area greets patrons and Strong Place has most of its seating beyond the bar (two small tables offer Court Street people watching right by the entrance). We cannot wait to return to Strong Place!

The long weekend is upon us! We’ll be sticking around town and hope to get some NYC bar hopping completed before Monday night rolls around. A few spots on our radar around Manhattan: Pennsylvania 6 at 132 West 31st Street, The Headless Horseman at 119 East 15th Street and Hudson Common at 356 West 58th Street. The Hudson Common is supposedly a new beer hall within the Hudson Hotel, which seems to be re-creating its bar themes every few years.

A cocktail bar in Battery Park City, one block south of the World Financial Center at 301 South End Avenue. This part of town does not have many bars, so The Black Hound is a welcomed addition to the area. The main bar area greets patrons and then there’s a small lounge area just beyond the main bar area. Friendly staff, tasty cocktails and a small-but-quality craftbeer selection make this place enjoyable.

The Madelyn is a Gastro Pub in the space formerly known as Vyne at 82 West 3rd Street, just above Zinc Bar. The Madelyn seems a bit out of place for the area, but with other non-dive bars opening up in the nabe, we suppose the NYU section of the Village is also deserves a Gastro Pub. The layout is similar to Vyne, some low lying seating areas and high-top tables in the bar area. The food is solid as well. Another Gastro Pub, Rogue & Canon, just recently opened two blocks south on Houston Street. We’ll have a review of Rogue & Canon in a forthcoming post.

Located at 222 West Houston Street, Houston Hall is perhaps Manhattan’s best new beer bar opening in at least a year’s time. This place is a legitimate beer hall, craft-beer bar as well as a great addition to the West Village craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl. Very spacious for Manhattan, Houston Hall offers nearly three dozen communal tables and all the tap beer offerings are made by Greenpoint Beer Works (a bit of a misnomer, Greenpoint Beer Works is not actually in Greenpoint, but in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn. This company makes the Kelso beers and the Heartland Brewery beers, among others). And it’s not just German style beers available at Houston Hall, but the selection runs the wide spectrum of beers (everything from a pilsner to a very malty scotch ale to a hoppy IPA). Despite opening in early January, 2013, Houston Hall feels as though it’s been around for a while. This is definitely a place worth going out of your way for. We can’t wait to return.